Salt Lake evening Democrat. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1885-1887, 1887-06-30
ARMY PAY ACCOUNTS.

The subject of army pay accounts is
one which has undergone much discus
sion, and, though in one way the present
system may be justly called loose, it has
not yet been seen fit to change it, and
we believe that it should not be changed.
The following is the view taken of the
matter by prominent Eastern paper:
It is not considered strange that under
the present army system there should be
frequent Implications of pay accounts. An
officer finds himself in need of ready money:
He cannot borrow 1t on the instant from
his friends. He has received numerous cir
culars actually offering to buy duplicated
pay accounts. The temptation is often too
strong to Withstand. One of these circu-
lars, Just received at headquarters from an
army officer reads: "And as we desire to con-
form as near as may be to the regulations in
regard to the hypothecation Of accounts, we
would suggest TO our patrons that it would
be agreeable to rs for them to draw the pay
themselves as soon as possible, If 1t is con-
venient 30 to do, and then remit to rs, and
then we can return the account to them;
aud We will. when requested so to do, hold
an account till we hear from them, and ar
range as to payment" This circular makes
the offer to furnish money on duplicated
pay accounts at two per cent. a month. In
other words, it encourages the officer to
commit crime, and exacts twenty -four cents
year on every dollar advanced to prevent
exposure and disgrace.
The stand taken by this writer is at
once weak and unworthy of considera-
ton, and few moments thought will
show why. Our army is necessarily an
organization Of honor, and as such its
reputation has no blight. AS soon as an
officer ceases to be honest, he is, if found
out, dismissed and is no longer part Of
the army. Now; if there is single Off
Ger in the army to-day who could not be
trusted with all the money in the United
States Treasury, in the face of thousand
such offers as the one mentioned in the
above paragraph, then the sooner his
superiors find it out the better. The
idea of temptation in this sense would be
laughed at by most army officers, and
should be by all. There is not one hour
in the four years of training which our
officers receive at the Military Academy,
which does not involve honor as an abso-
Lutte necessity. From the time the candi-
date enters "plebe" barracks to undergo
the preliminary examination, to that
proud day when he is handed his d.
ploma by the President of the United
States, or by some high-ranking army Of
ficer, there can be nothing but honor in
his actions and little else in his mind.
At West Point the question is not, "Will
the officers find it out If 1 do this?" The
cadet who lets class-mate, even a
roommate, hear him make dishonest
report TO cadet sentinel, is in just as
much danger of dismissal as though he
had made that report to the Secretary of
War, and had been overheard by General
Merritt, the Superintendent of the Acad-
emy. Now if, after this training, an off,
Ger cannot be trusted to draw his pay as
he draws it now, then let us quit pretend
ing to have honor in the ranks of our
army.
The present system is good one, and
the offers from outside parties needcause
no alarm. The Government can well
afford to pay an officer bis yearly salary
ten times over to find out that he is dis
honest, and for this reason, if for no
other, the present system should be re-
tained. This is no trap, because the
officer who falls into it does so with his
eyes open and is willing to take the risk
of being caught. When we have to put
bell-punches on our officers let's abolish
the army and employ Indians to do our
fighting for us.